Done With cool

Cool, like we from the monkeys, has evolved over time. James Dean was your now-cliché leather jacket style cool. Guns N' Roses were the edgy, hair-band rock lifestyle cool that is still so popular in rock music. Kid CuDi is the new-school class clown and pothead cool kid. While these different examples have certain separating factors, the most important part of their 'cool' pose is that which they all have in common; they perform the role of unique individuals who say screw you to 'the man' in order to do 'what they love'. The trend of being edgy and rebellious has been the universal slogan for cool regardless of what movement it was. From the Greasers to the Hipsters of williamsburg Coolness has, despite generational gaps, remained largely unchanged by the times. The same general ideas of cool that were held 50 years ago are still maintained, and we only see more and more aspects being tacked on to the 'cool' cork board. Examining trends of cool in the past and comparing them alongside views held today, we might be able to get a look at where cool came from, and even where its going.

My closest tie to the generation immediately prior to my own for me is my father. Having conversations with him about what life was like for him growing up gives me some minor insight into what it meant to be cool as a teenager growing up in fairly rural Ireland in the 70s. He was alive at the right time to catch the flame of the punk movement across western Europe. Bands like the Sex Pistols were gaining their fame and causing quite a ruckus for the old Catholic folk in Ireland. dad recalls times that he'd overhear other parents talk furiously about the punks who came through town, playing shows literally on trash can lids and beaten up instruments, almost for the simple sake of making noise. It was an outlet for teen angst like there never had been, and it was an embodiment of cool as we've seen it before; pretending that you don't give a fuck, that you run your own life, that you don't have to take shit from anyone....at least until you get to be 30, settle down in a respectable field, and put your 'rock days' behind you. Cool is a fickle beast, only around as long as you are young enough for it to be considered a 'phase'.

The concept of cool in the past was direct rebellion against the previous generation. Your parents were working-class stiffs, and you wanted to break out of their mold as much as possible, so that means that you had to act as different as you could from them. You had the hippies, son of 'war heroes', then punks, sons of once hippies, then there was a grunge movement, and a hip hop movement. What we are left with is a current generation of people descended from groups who have been through their own variations on what they found cool. Of course, their are always a few catches. I myself am the son of parents who were influenced partially by the punk craze in europe, but who eventually migrated to America. my parents had, whether they know it or not, a sense of exploration and need to be different that was at least partially instilled in them by what they were subject to in Ireland. The full extent of the evolution of cool is in families who have lived in america for generations, families who have had their members in many of the historical cool periods.

Take an example for the sake of argument; family living in suburban california in the 60s; their teenage child is heavily swayed by the hippy culture, something that was heavily congregated is california at the time. That teenager grew up to eventually cast aside his hippy inclinations and 'settle down' with a family. (let's say they moved to New York to settle.) His child, by now the late 70s or early 80s, will be heavily influenced by punk rock and hair metal music, giving him a new mentality that is more aggressively 'fuck the man' than the hippies would have been. At the same time, he could be influenced by rap and hip-hop music, still carrying a very aggressive sense of removal from societal normalcy. He grows up, again likely settling down with family and kids, then his kid grows up in the 90s. The early 90s was the Kurt Cobain period; grunge, the kind of apathetic, subtly rebellious tones of angsty teenagers. Punk was still strong at the time, but it was growing more angsty as well. Everyone had problems they wanted voiced, and found the voice in this music. I would say that this is the first example of a mold that is half-complete; they weren't entirely sure of who they were or even wanted to be, and this might have helped ease the turmoil they all felt.

Those specific people are still growing up, but those who have already have the kids of my generation, and we are exposed now to a lot of pop music, a lot of it centered on drugs and sexuality, with people like Lady Gaga, Kid Cudi, and more. We have perhaps less guidance than nay other group, and more cool memes to choose from. If I had to label our cool group it would be the indie ages, where everyone wants to jump on the indie bandwagon and show how edgy and different they are. We are a time of hipsters and parties in Williamsburg, of wearing cardigans and dress shoes with plastic neon glasses, of trying to be cool in our difference, without realizing that we aren't the first to try it.

To conclude, in some sort of cliché wrap-up sentiment, we're just like we have always been - looking for some recognition where everyone else just sees anonymity. We want to stand out, be bold and daring, but not necessarily isolated. We want to be loved and appreciated by all, while claiming we want none of it. Except we don't realize that James Dean did it first, or at least did it best the earliest, and we can't bring a fresh approach, because at this point, it's all scripted.

Take 3, and action....